Ministries to list power companies for coal linkage

New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) Coal and power ministries will prepare a list of electricity producers to whom coal would be allocated on priority basis, the coal ministry said Wednesday.

"Requests have been received from IPPs (Independent Power Producers) which are outside the 60,000 MW list for signing FSAs (Fuel Supply Agreements)...It was agreed that a prioritised list of these companies would be jointly prepared by MoC (Ministry of Coal) and MoP (Ministry of Power)," the coal ministry said here.

The ministry also said the power plants of these IPPs were expected to be ready to begin generation before March 2013.

In case these firms could not get statutory clearances on time or could not get Letter of Assurances (LoAs) for various reasons, the coal ministry would then "carry out a scenario analysis indicating the impact of offering normal or tapering linkage/signing FSAs with all sub-set of these companies (bases on priority) on the quantum of imports and the pooled prices," the ministry said.

Till date, 35 power firms have signed fuel supply agreements with the state-run Coal India (CIL).

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said last month that most issues related to the contentious fuel supply agreements (FSAs) have been resolved.

Both ministers said a joint decision was taken to ensure that there was no "distinction" on FSAs for public and private power companies.

This followed the directive from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Dec 17 for power producers to enter into FSAs with CIL within a month.

There were differences between CIL and power companies over certain FSA clauses and other issues, including coal quality.

The companies which have signed FSAs include Bajaj Energy, Rosa Power, Mundra Adani and Sterlite Energy.

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